David Maddox: Labour MPs afflicted by jitters bug

ANYBODY who thinks that Scotland – apart from its oil and gas revenues – does not matter to Westminster now that the referendum is over was proven wrong at the end of last week when the beginnings of a coup against Labour leader Ed Miliband got under way.

Ed Miliband has been the target of unhappy mutterings ever since he beat his brother to the Labour leadership. Picture: Getty

It is true to say that Mr Miliband has been the target of unhappy mutterings ever since he beat his brother David to the Labour leadership in 2010, but the moves on Friday took the unrest to a new level.

Of course we have been here before. There was an attempted coup against Gordon Brown at the end of 2009, with six months to go before the election.

In both cases the push has been sparked out of panic by Labour MPs over the prospect that they will not win the general election.

But Mr Miliband’s own travails are directly as a result of what is going on in Scotland. Labour MPs are looking at the SNP’s huge popularity and the opinion polls which suggest a potential wipe out in many Labour heartland areas.

“If we can’t win in Scotland then we can’t win at all,” is the conclusion.

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As in 2009, though, this attempted coup will almost certainly fizzle out and Mr Miliband is likely to be leading his party into the election in May next year. Labour is good at causing a collective fuss but bad at removing leaders.

If Mr Miliband was to be replaced, it needed to be done at least a year ago, well before the final run into a general election. Now there is not even time to run a proper election to replace him.

It leaves many watching from the sidelines wondering why Labour MPs can’t learn from history. This attempt to remove Mr Miliband will damage the party for the next election, as the 2009 fiasco did for Labour in 2010.

It is noticeable that the Tories are now regularly polling ahead of Labour, and despite their problems with Ukip are on course to being at least the largest party.

This has in itself increased the “jitters”, as front bencher Caroline Flint put it, but trashing your own leader does not win elections.

But what it also shows is a remarkable lack of knowledge of the Scottish electorate, who have proven to be among the canniest in the UK. While the polls may be accurate, Scots have in the past voted differently for Holyrood, Westminster, councils and the referendum.

This is how the same voters can help elect Labour MPs to Westminster, SNP MSPs to Holyrood, Tories to councils and vote No in a referendum in areas where they vote strongly SNP.

There appear to be few calm heads in Labour at the moment, but those jittery MPs ought to look at Scottish voting patterns and then try to win the general election.

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